MORGANTOWN — Bad timing may have cost the WVU men’s basketball team a shot at the Battle 4 Atlantis’ championship game.
More likely the culprit was Louisville point guard Chucky Hepburn, who poured in a career-high 32 points and added six steals Thursday, as the Cardinals took down the Mountaineers 79-70 in overtime, in the tournament’s semifinals.
“Obviously, Chucky’s performance was spectacular,” Louisville head coach Pat Kelsey said. “I’ve been doing this a long time. I’ve coached Chris Paul and several other NBA point guards, but that was the single-most dominant performance on both ends of the floor by a point guard I’ve ever seen.”
Louisville (5-1) advances to the title game in the Bahamas, while WVU will play the loser of the Arizona-Oklahoma game at 3 p.m. (ESPN2) in the third-place game ton Friday.
The timing issue was simply WVU (4-2) running out of it on the final play of regulation.
With the game tied at 62, WVU point guard Javon Small — he had himself a game, too, with 26 points, seven rebounds and seven assists — stood out just past midcourt dribbling the final 30 seconds off the clock, as the Mountaineers were expecting to take the final shot.
With about eight seconds remaining, Amani Hansberry came out to set a screen for Small, but both Louisville defenders continued to chase after Small, leaving Hansberry open.
By the time Small could get through the two defenders and pass the ball to Hansberry, the shot clock had run out with the ball still in Hansberry’s hands.
“I’ve just got to know the shot clock,” Small said. “I tried to make play. They had been blitzing our ball screens the whole time. I just turned the ball over.”
“We probably got started a little late on that possession,” WVU head coach Darian DeVries added. “I would have liked to have gone a second, or two, earlier. That had been working for us, getting Javon and Amani out there in space.”
That forced a second consecutive overtime game for WVU, which thrived in that scene in upsetting No. 3 Gonzaga on Wednesday. A day later, it was the Cardinals and Hepburn, a senior transfer who played three seasons as Wisconsin before joining Louisville out of the portal, who took over the game.
“I don’t think we ran out of gas,” WVU head coach Darian DeVries said of his players playing in two overtime games in consecutive days. “We’re not going to use that. I thought Louisville did a nice job and made some plays and were able to get to the free-throw line. There were certainly plenty of opportunities there for us to capitalize on to come out on top.”
After Louisville sharpshooter Reyne Smith started the overtime with a 3-pointer, Hepburn had a hand in the next 12 points Louisville scored.
He got to the free-throw line on the Cardinals’ next three possessions, with an and-one three-point play fouling out WVU forward Tucker DeVries with 2:30 left in OT.
He them combined with teammate Kasean Pryor to trap and knock the ball loose from Small, with Pryor racing down to the other end of the floor for an easy lay-in.
“I thought Chucky had a big impact on the game at both ends of the floor,” Darian DeVries said. “He was able to get some steals for them and get them some opportunities at that end. I thought he did a great job of controlling the game on the offensive end. He has a unique ability of getting to the paint and drawing fouls.”
He added four more points from the free-throw line that gave Louisville a 76-70 lead with 31.7 seconds remaining.
This time, there was no late heroics or Cinderella moments for the Mountaineers, like they had found previously against Gonzaga.
There was only Chucky.
“I kept saying, ‘We’re not going to lose this game,’ the entire second half,” Hepburn said. “My team found ways to dig deep and get stops. (Pryor) showed out really well for us in the second half, the whole team did.
“That’s what you want to play with as a point guard. That’s why I love this team so much.”
Small was just as impressive in what turned out to be a dueling point guard battle. He shot 10 of 19 from the floor and made four 3-pointers. His final three of the game tied the game at 67 with 2:59 left in overtime.
Hansberry, too, continued to have some strong performances for the Mountaineers. The forward finished with 19 points and five rebounds.
Against Gonzaga, Hansberry had 19 points and eight rebounds.
“I’m definitely feeling more comfortable,” Hansberry said. “I feel like the game is slowing down for me. I’m playing better competition and getting a better vibe to my teammates.”
